Gary Antuanne Russell and Andy Hiraoka will have to wait until the new year for their long-ago ordered meeting.
BoxingScene has confirmed that the WBA 140lbs title fight is expected to land on the first Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) event of 2026. Company officials were not in a position to comment on the matter or even confirm or deny the development. However, it is understood that their bout will be scheduled for either January 31 or February 21, the uncertainty related to a pair of separately targeted title fights still being negotiated.
The latter date is expected to be topped by the previously rumored Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia WBC 147lbs title fight. Garcia took to social media to insist that he has signed for the fight. BoxingScene has learned that the matter is not quite yet at that point, though the date will be firm should representatives quickly tie up all loose ends.
January 31 was previously teased to feature the return of former eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao. At the time, the rumor called for the hall-of-fame boxer to challenge WBA 147lbs titlist Rolando “Rolly” Romero. However, nothing has yet come of that match-up, and Romero is set to next face mandatory challenger Shakhram Giyasov.
Either way, Russell, 18-1 (17 KOs), and Hiraoka, 24-0 (19 KOs), can expect to hear a firm update in the very near future on their overdue title fight.
The bout officially became homeless with the cancellation of a Netflix card on November 14 that was to be led by the previously announced Jake Paul-Gervonta “Tank” Davis exhibition. The high-profile affair was scrapped once Davis ran into legal troubles; he remains the subject of a civil lawsuit regarding an alleged domestic-violence incident in South Florida.
Paul, 12-1 (7 KOs), has since agreed to face former two-time unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua in a scheduled eight-round contest. Their sanctioned meeting will headline a Netflix card on December 19 from Kaseya Center, home to the NBA’s Miami Heat and the original hosting venue for Paul-Davis.
The recently announced undercard included most of the supporting cast from the November date, excluding Russell-Hiraoka. That fight fell out of the line-up once PBC – who represents Davis and Russell – was no longer involved with the event given Davis’ removal.
Russell became the second member of his famous fighting family to claim a major title with his dominant points victory over Jose Valenzuela, 14-3 (9 KOs), on March 1. The 28-year-old southpaw from Capitol Heights, Maryland won nearly every round on all three scorecards to claim the WBA junior-welterweight title. The fight served as the PBC on Prime Pay-Per-View co-feature to Davis’ 12-round, majority draw with Lamont Roach Jnr at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Guiding the 2016 Olympian on fight night was Gary Russell Jnr, Gary Antuanne’s older brother, who held the WBC featherweight title from 2015 to 2022.
The younger Russell’s title win came nine months after his lone career defeat. Russell dropped a 12-round decision to Alberto Puello in their vacant WBC junior-welterweight title fight in June in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hiraoka has been the mandatory challenger since a ninth-round knockout of Ismael Barroso, 25-5-2 (23 KOs), in September at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
The bout was part of a show headlined by his celebrated stablemate Naoya Inoue’s seventh-round stoppage of TJ Doheny in a defence of his undisputed junior-featherweight championship.
With the win, Hiraoka, also a 28-year-old southpaw, claimed his 10th consecutive knockout victory. He’s yet to be taken beyond the 11th round – a distance he was extended in an eventual knockout of his countryman Jin Sasaki, a recent welterweight-title challenger, in October 2021.
